Magic Kingdom Update – Ch-ch-ch-changes ( Part I )

A quick trip through the Magic Kingdom on Saturday revealed a number of changes coming to the park. There are also a few fun new pieces of merchandise to peruse. Click on any image to see a larger version. Now, let’s get started.

The park is looking festive with plenty of Halloween decor everywhere.

City Hall joins in the fall themed fun.

There did appear to be just a bit less of the holiday themed decor this year than before. But it was still a few days ahead of the 1st official Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, so more may be coming.

A lot more to see below the jump:

Most of the stores had both Halloween decor and themed merchandise options.

I particularly enjoyed this trio of steampunk inspired hats.

Although the parks haven’t been making a big deal of it, 2011 has seen an explosion of new Mouse Ears. Here are some of the latest to hit the shelves (Duffy’s not new, however).

This was a glass half-full situation. On one hand it’s nice to see that cheesy Balzac vendor gone. On the other hand, they just replaced it with more cheap plastic crap. I would rather have seen something Tomorrowland themed or unique to the park.

So much of the park is surrounded by Construction Walls. Adventureland saw these around the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, which is down for repairs..

Apparently, they ran out off walls at some point, as they were using chicken wire here.

Two sets of walls here. One is the construction wall for Fantasyland, the other is one of the new Walls that will separate the castle courtyard from the fairytale forest area. .

The Beast’s castle looks amazing and a lot of work continues on Belle’s cottage.

Prince Eric’s castle looks great as do the sea cliffs behind it.

A construction tarp is still up around the Enchanted Grove, but it is open during its refurbishment.

Someone needs to take down these Toon Town signs.

Work continues on the loading and unloading area for the Great Goofini coaster. This is supposed to be one of the 1st attractions to open. They’d better get to work.

The new Fantasyland Train Station (or could be Storybook Circus station, depending on how they decide to name it) is coming along nice. It’s cinderblock now, but should have a nice themed brick look when it is done.

There doesn’t appear to have been much work done on Dumbo, but there were workers busy adding something along the roofline area. You can’t see it in this photo, but work on the foundations for the twin spinners has begun. This is also supposed to open in the 1st phase, so let’s hope work gets done fast!

Thanks so much for reading part 1 of this update. We’ll see you real soon in part 2.